509550 - MODERN HISTORY METHODS AND SOURCES

courses

ID:

509550

Duration (hours):

36

CFU:

SSD:

STORIA MODERNA

Year:

2025

Date/time interval

Primo Semestre (22/09/2025 - 19/12/2025)

Course Objectives

The course aims to introduce the knowledge and the use of the historiographical technical and conceptual instruments to the students. They will become familiar with the different primary sources available and the methodologies used to develop a research in early modern history. At the end of the course, the students will obtain the tools to reflect autonomously on the characteristics of history as profession and they will independently elaborate an historical research.

Course Prerequisites

Basic knowledge of the early modern history. Propension and interest in the discipline.

Teaching Methods

The lessons will be designed as seminar with the active participation of the students, who will read and discuss essays and archival sources. Slides, papers and examples of primary sources will be provided during the lessons and uploaded on the KIRO page of this course. Some execrations at local archives will be organized.

Assessment Methods

Attending students Oral exam (50% of the final grade). The other fraction of the final grade will be determined by the participation to the class activities, including the production of papers/presentation (25%) and their collective discussion (25%). Non-attending students Oral exam. The oral exam will test the knowledge of the topics presented during the classes or addressed in the exam's bibliography.

Texts

Attending students
- Notes, slides, and other material distributed during the lectures
- M. Bloch, Apologia della storia o mestiere di storico, Torino, Einaudi, qualsiasi edizione
- M. P. Paoli (a cura di), Nel laboratorio della storia: una guida alle fonti della storia moderna, Roma, Carocci 2013

Non-attending students
- M. Bloch, Apologia della storia o mestiere di storico, Torino, Einaudi, qualsiasi edizione
- M. P. Paoli (a cura di), Nel laboratorio della storia: una guida alle fonti della storia moderna, Roma, Carocci 2013
- One of the following books:
o R. Bizzocchi, Guida allo studio della storia moderna, Roma, Laterza 2002
o F. Chabod, Lezioni di metodo storico, Roma, Laterza 2006
o G. Galasso, Prima lezione di storia moderna, Roma, Laterza 2008
o C. Ginzburg, Il formaggio e i vermi. Il cosmo di un mugnaio del ‘500 (qualsiasi edizione)
o G. Levi, L’eredità immateriale. Carriera di un esorcista nel Piemonte del Seicento (qualsiasi edizione)
o P. Prodi, Introduzione allo studio della storia moderna, Bologna, il Mulino 1999
o S. Subrahmanyam, Mondi connessi. La storia oltre l’eurocentrismo, Roma, Carocci 2014
o F. Trivellato, Microstoria e storia globale, Roma, Officina Libraria 2023

During the lectures, the different primary sources used by the early modern scholars will be presented to the students, which will be asked to develop a critical approach in reading and interpretating the archival sources. These analyses will be followed by discussions on the main research methodologies, focusing on how they were developed in the past and how they could be implemented in an original and useful way. The lectures will be organized as seminars. Individual work and regular participation to the class activities will be required. The class activities will include lectures, group works, critical reading of primary sources, and discussions of papers and other materials provided by the professor.